iPhone 4 and 4S

[KrisTodd]

Hi all,

Hope someone can help with this....

Recently (within the last week) ported in two numbers to Vodafone (one from Orange the other from O2) and got two new iPhone 4s.  Both work great at home on the wifi connection however both seem to have a major issue in maintaining a reliable data connection on Vodafone's network.  Let me explain...

Both my wife and I work in Newcastle upon Tyne but in different parts of the city.   Both our iPhones show strong 3g signal strength however when we try to use Safari we get one of two messages:  1.  Couldn't open the page because the sever stopped responding or 2. couldn't access cellular data network.  Furhtermore I use Apple's mobileme email which should be pushed out to my phone but this is not happening (I guess because there is no data connection available). 

I have spoken to Vodafone (both 191 and Voda retail).  Tests have been done on the masts in the areas where the phones are and both have come back as being ok.  Not sure what the next step is though. 

I need to make a decision in the next day or two about staying with or cancelling my contracts (still in the 14 day period).  I really would like to stay - the price plan etc and deal on the phones were great but I'm not paying good money for a non-existent data service. 

Please can someone help and fast!!? 

Many thanks

Kris

[KrisTodd · Accepted solution]

Hi,

After a further day of no data connection I spoke to a very helpful guy at Vodafone Tech Support.  He suggested changing the data APN to Internet with username and passwords of web.  After a turn off/on of handset it seems to be working so far.  Touch wood this has fixed things. 

Not sure of the significance of changing the APN.  Has anyone else had to make this change to settings?

Cheers

Kris

[KrisTodd]

Oh dear.  Spoke too soon.  Same problem again today. 

:-(

[Alvadr]

I'm having the exact same problem since yesterday lunchtime. In Leeds! I had perfect 3G connection until yesterday afternoon. Started to get the 'unable to activate data network' or 'page stopped responding'. The 3G icon is displayed at the top of my screen and have a full 5 bar signal where I work. Where I live I am not in a 3G area so I was unable to test it there last night. Connecting to my home wifi works fine though. I rang 191 number for some assistance and they also told me to change the APN to Internet. Which I did and it worked fine for about 2mins then I went back to having problems... Not good! Iv also noticed that if I disable 3G and reenable it my 3G connection works for a very short while (long enough to load up a single webpage). At the moment I have 3G disabled on my phone because E and O connections seem to be working ok. Any help would be great as I am paying alot of money for this phone including insurance. Internet access was the main reason I bought it. Andrew

[KrisTodd]

Same here - if I switch off 3g I seem to get a more reliable (albeit painfully slow) connection - but at least its a connection! 

A colleague in the office is also on Vodafone but everything seems to be ok for him.  He has a Samsung handset.  So joining the dots and making a few fairly high level assumptions here:

1.  Seems to be particularly affecting iPhone users but not all Vodafone customers?

2.  Users showing good 3g signal stregth but are unable to get or maintain a reliable data connection

3.  Chaning the APN from wap.vodafone.co.uk to internet seems to help but only temporarily. 

4.  Switching to 2g mode seems to offer a more reliable solution but is not ideal (nor what we are paying fo!)

I'm baffled.  Please can anyone help with this? 

[Martin]

Hi Guys

I am sorry to see that you are having issues with trying to use 3G.

With everything that has been said on this thread, it sounds like the signal is working fine, as other users would be effected on the Vodafone network.

I do know all phones have a different capability in picking up the 3G network that is available, that is why the Samsung handset is still working.

To add a few suggestions here, I would recommend:

1. Doing a soft reset of the phone, to do this, press and hold the power button and the menu button at the same time, the phone will power of, keep them pressed, and this will come back on again, then release. You wont lose anything on the phone.

2. If that doesn't help, I would do a full restore, make sure that you back everything up before hand, and to do this, connect the phone to iTunes and select restore.

3.Vodafone Sure Signal, this will make sure that you get 3G at the location where you have the Sure Signal box, for yourself and other users.

Martin

eForum Team

[KrisTodd]

Hi Martin, Thanks for responding. Tried your suggestions and even tried updating to latest firmware but still have the same issue I'm afraid. The only thing I haven't tried is the sure signal but (1) i seem to get a really good signal anyway without it and can make or receive calls ok and (2) i need to be out and about rather than in one location so sure signal is not really practical. Things do seem to have improved but are still a long way from reliable or satisfactory. Looking at a few other posts there seems to be a network issue but sow uncertainty on how to resolve it! Thanks Kris

[Dave]

KrisTodd,

You mention you're having issues in different parts of Newcastle - are these locations generally in the City Centre, or is the area wider spread?

I only ask as there are a number of new cellsites being set up around the city centre in the next few months. Business districts in city centres can tend to become more congested by nature during working hours, and this is designed to help boost the coverage and signal speed at that time.

Away from the City Centre, are you generally experiencing better signal? If so, that may suggest that the cause is predominantly city centre congestion. We are upgrading across the network anyway, but I can categorically confirm that this area is due for a number of new sites to improve coverage.

Dave

eForum Team

[KrisTodd]

Hi Dave, I use my phone in the city centre and I can understand why there may be congestion issues there. My wife however uses her phone on the outskirts of town. There is good signal but she has the same issue as me. I note from the forum that other users seem to be having similar problems across the country. Do you think this is part of a wider network issue? Best regards Kris

[Wayne]

Hi KrisTodd

Thanks for coming back to me here.

Can you provide me with the two locations full postcodes and we'll take a look at the cell sites in question. It's possible that you are being effected by separate issues so I'd like to investigate this for you

Thanks

Wayne

eForum Team

[KrisTodd]

Hi Wayne,

Sure no problem and thanks for looking into this. 

We tried accessing the data network at home yesterday (NE3 3GJ) and surprisingly found that it worked.  The areas where we are having continuing issues are at:  NE3 3LS  and NE1 8QE and more generally in Newcastle City centre which I guess is NE1...

As I have previously explained - we are showing strong 3g signal but for some reason can not get or hang on to a reliable data connection.  Switching 3g mode off on the iPhones does seem to help the problem but the speeds then become so slow it is not really useable.

Can't fault Vodafone customer services - they have been very understanding and supportive.  Unfortunately they have not been able to diagnose the problem though. 

Thanks in advance.

[Woody]

Hi KrisTodd,

Thanks for getting in touch with the team.

We are already ware of issues in this area, due to congestion on the network. We are working to make massive improvements in the areas and a lot of news sites are planned for the up and coming months. You will notice a big improvement in your signal, speed and reliability soon.

Thanks for your patience with this matter.

Woody

eForum Team

[seansalvador1]

My phone has a full signal and can make calls/send texts but anything requiring a data connection will not work! It is completely frustrating. I have tried to contact Vodafone about this by email but the email doesn't work on this site either! I have a HTC Wildfire and live in DN40 2ED. The connection restarted a couple of days ago for about 8 hours and then stopped again. I have checked everything and even deleted some apps in case it was anything to do with those. All i get is the following - "Data connectivity problem" 'Try again later' Also, the little 'G' symbol at the top flashes almost constantly, as though something is trying to establish a connection but after checking, nothing is! I have followed the advise of a few people in here (Checking APN setting etc) but nothing seems amiss. It seems to me to be a problem with Vodafone, which is annoying because i never seem to get anywhere with them... I am really questioning whether or not to just unlock my phone and go with someone else. If this isn't resolved by the weekend i most certainly will do. Regards Sean

[Wayne]

Hi Seansalvador1

I've answered your other post here

Thanks

Wayne

eForum Team

[KrisTodd]

Hi Wayne, Woody.

Thanks for all the support and I'll sit tight and wait for the improvements to come (although slightly concerned by some posts on here that people have been promised similar things in the past which have not materialised or not helped!).

Purely out of interest could you explain how 3g signal strength and phone calling/texting etc does not seem to be affected by the congestion issue but the data connection is?  I'm struggling to get my non-techy brain around how I can have full 3g signal and do everything apart from anything data related?  Also if I drop to 2g it all seems to work.  Very strange.   For what it is worth, the store manager did not seem to think that the issue was congestion related.  Can you shed any light on this please?

Many thanks

Kris

[Lee]

Hey Kris Todd,

Thanks for your post regarding the differences between 2G and 3G.

Obviously, data speed is the main difference but I understand you're not seeing the benefits right now.

Ok, delving a little deeper, the voice and data paths are independent of each other, the circuit switched side handles the voice calls, packet switched side does the data calls and SMS messages are transported over signaling channels - hence why voice and SMS will work whilst data connectivity is troublesome.

To explain bandwidth in Layman's terms: the data side has a finite bandwidth which is a shared resource, if 1 person is using it they will get the full bandwidth, 2 users get 50% each, 5 users each get 20% of the pie - which is ok......however if you get 50 users all wanting a slice of pie you don't get a mouthful.

I trust this makes a little more sense.

Cheers,

Lee

eForum Team